Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: touch, feel, sense of touch, tactile sense, tactility, contact, using one's hands, sensation, sense, suspicion, sneaking suspicion, notion, inkling, hunch, fancy, apprehension, presentiment, premonition, foreboding, love, care, affection, fondness, tenderness, warmth, warmness, emotion, sentiment, emotional state, compassion, sympathy, empathy, fellow feeling, understanding, concern, solicitude, solicitousness, tender-heartedness, brotherly love, sensibilities, sensitivities, self-esteem, ego, pride, opinion, belief, view, impression, intuition, instinct, estimation, guess, theory, hypothesis, thought, way of thinking, point of view, atmosphere, ambience, aura, air, mood, climate, character, overtone, undertone, tenor, spirit, quality, flavour, colour, aptitude, knack, flair, bent, talent, gift, skill, art, trick, faculty, ability, propensity, inclination, sensitive, warm, warm-hearted, tender, tender-hearted, caring, soft-hearted, sympathetic, compassionate, empathetic, responsive, receptive, intuitive, thoughtful

Antonyms: bad feeling, acrimony, animosity, animus, antagonism, antipathy, aversion, bitterness, detestation, disgust, dislike, disrelish, enmity, friction, grievances, grudges, hatred, hostility, loathing, malevolence, malice

Showing 4101 to 4125 of 4952 results

4101. Appointment with Thunder

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... the prayers, sing meaningfully the hymns, or read carefully the scriptures that are familiar. The Ten Commandments are so familiar that it may have been quite some time since some of us read them carefully. Or thought about them carefully. Or perhaps obeyed them carefully. And then there is this other matter. The Ten Commandments suffer a bit from the fact that we teach them to children. In Sunday school classes, in vacation Bible schools, in children's Bible stories, and in our homes, we teach the ...

4102. Hearts on Fire

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... of God and must change their ways. As a result, prophets were not always popular. Jeremiah was a case in point. Jeremiah criticized just about everyone including the king and the priests. At the gates of the temple, Jeremiah said that if the priests thought God was impressed by their words, they were wrong. He condemned the rich for exploiting the poor and the poor for deserving no better. The people grew tired of his messages of doom and gloom. When he predicted that the Babylonians were about to attack ...

4103. Headed in the Right Direction

Romans 15:4-13

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... , mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools." Napoleon said, "History is but a fable agreed upon." And everyone's favorite comes from Henry Ford, "History is bunk." We are apt to fall prey to what C. S. Lewis called "chronological snobbery." I always thought he coined that wonderful phrase, but it turns out it comes from his friend, Owen Barfield, who defined it this way: Chronological snobbery is the presumption, fueled by the modern conception of progress, that all thinking, all art, and all science of ...

4104. A Little Theology at Christmas

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him. Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny ...

4105. No Partiality

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... yet, it seems, he was too close to the human Jesus to have things really clear. It took some time for him to realize, "I truly understand that God shows no partiality...." Kathryn Henderson, a Houghton College student on a summer internship, had some really radical thoughts about homeless people in Chicago: I've been wondering what it would be like if it was just a cultural norm for people in the city to make efforts to care for the homeless who begged on the street that they traveled on most. Like: I spend ...

4106. Small-Minded Christians in a Big World

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours." We need to work hard to avoid the easy trap of factionalism. We cannot be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and travel in ever smaller circles and think ever smaller thoughts. We cannot become small-minded Christians in a big world. Today, more than ever before, we are called to be big-minded Christians in a small world. Amen. 1. Lamin Sanneh, Whose Religion is Christianity: The Gospel Beyond the West (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B ...

4107. For Example

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Sermon

David O. Bales

... Book of World Records. You can't generate love and reconciliation, trust and affection through the principle of law. It's not as though wives won't obey when their husbands order them to do something they don't want to do. I've known women who thought it their Christian duty to live as did all women — pagan, Jewish, and Christian — in the first century AD, which meant as legal property of their husband. It's not whether a wife obeys her husband against her will. It can happen. It's whether a wife ...

4108. Spiritual Resuscitation

Romans 8:6-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... a baseball game. As I was dashing through the house and yard doing my jobs, I worked up an early appetite and thought I should prepare some nutritious morsel before the ordeal of a baseball game. In the refrigerator I found frankfurters. Not hotdogs. These ... hunk of carbon in a pan emitting vast amounts of acrid, gray vapors. I rushed outside to toss the pan onto the lawn to cool. I thought I had run fast to first base, but I ran faster to open every window and door in the house. I retrieved the pan and ...

4109. Humility: We Know It When We See It

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... to enter human life, God would somehow be diminished, made something less than divine. However, the scriptures clearly say: Jesus didn't disguise himself as a servant. He became a servant. It wasn't an act. It was real. Jesus felt what we feel, thought our thoughts, endured our pain, was tempted with our temptations but didn't sin. This doesn't diminish God. It shows us how truly great God is, by showing us how concerned God is for us. Have you seen the photograph of Mohandas Gandhi's worldly possessions ...

4110. Yes, You

1 Peter 2:2-10

Sermon

David O. Bales

... able then, especially, to take God's grace to others. No calling is higher than that. If being directly in God's presence frightens you, if your equality with all God's people overwhelms you, or if biblical religion appears not to be the kind you thought you signed up for, do what Peter tells us in verse 2, "Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation." Long for something more fundamental than church traditions. Desire a vital relationship with God, and ...

4111. Boast in Our Suffering

Romans 5:1-8

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... compelling us to examine what is really important in our lives. When we suffer, God is getting our attention. You know what that is like. You haven't had a drink for hours on a hot day. That first touch of water to your lips is amazing. You never thought that a simple taste of water could make such a difference. You haven't had food for a day. You are starved and famished. Your stomach is growling with hunger. Your taste buds are so sensitive that even a smidgen of peanut butter on a piece of stale bread ...

4112. Captive Free!

Romans 7:15-25a

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... faith and trust in God. He can't help but think that he has got to do something to win heavenly brownie points. And worse yet, he assumes that he is capable of doing it. Given his outstanding track record of business success and religious piety, he must have thought that he had a pretty good chance of passing the test. Jesus knows that all is not well. He knows that this man's heart is not right with God. He may have a pretty good record of humanitarian kindness, but when it comes to his relationship with ...

4113. Children of the Heavenly Father

Romans 8:12-25

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... congregation whose husband was a virtual vegetable after suffering a stroke. She waited lovingly and patiently on him day after day for months. Then one day she looked up at me with pain and grief filling her face, "Pastor, they told me it would be the golden years. I never thought that golden would mean this." In the face of such end-of-life decisions, we don't have to make an idol out of this life. We can afford to let go. (Folks, if you haven't already done so, you need to make a living will or some ...

4114. Seeing God Work for Good

Romans 8:26-39

Sermon

Larry Lange

... , right? It's how they learn." "Larry," I said, "if your four-year-old steals some candy, you don't punish him by giving him cancer." "Yeah, but I know better than a four-year-old." I was a young pastor, then — idealistic, inexperienced. I thought that the word alone could easily erase fears and feelings. Especially if they were wonderful words. Especially if they were holy words, words like those in today's lesson: "Nothing can separate us from the love of God." Paul lists several things that can tempt ...

4115. The Armor of Light

Romans 13:8-14

Drama

Larry Lange

... where were you planning on going dressed like that, Harry? Halloween isn't quite here yet. Harry: You're mocking me, Margaret. I can tell. Margaret: (puts paper down) Oh! No! Far be it from me to mock a man dressed in aluminum foil! No, really, Harry, I always thought silver was your color. So what is that thing for anyway, Harry? Harry: It's the armor of light! The apostle Paul writes about it in his letter to the Romans, chapter 13, verse 11: "You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you ...

4116. A Vision Vanished

Philippians 3:4-14

Sermon

Larry Lange

... Jesus or what? No one seemed to want to hear his story, so maybe it wasn't such a great story after all. Maybe it was just a story. Maybe he was just whacked — seeing stuff. "Glad to see you back, Arnie. We were getting worried about you. We thought you'd gone and joined a church and become a preacher." "Church?" Arnold spat. "What's the church done for me? Just gimme the usual." "That's my boy," said the bartender, reaching out across the sticky bar to clap Arnold on the shoulder. I have not seen Jesus ...

4117. The Pastor's Parking Space

Luke 14:1,7-14

Illustration

Richard Patt

... the sign needed to be clearer, so he had a different sign made, which read, "Reserved for Pastor Only." Still people ignored it and parked in his space whenever they felt like it. "Maybe the sign should be more forceful," he thought. So he devised a more intimidating one, which announced, "Thou shalt not park here." That sign didn't make any difference either. Finally, he hit upon the words that worked; in fact, nobody ever took his parking place again. The sign read, "The one who parks here preaches ...

4118. A Man Named Useful

Philemon 1:8-25

Sermon

King Duncan

... divorce always does. She said she finally came to the conclusion at the end of it all that divorce was indeed a sin. “When you look at the damage it does, you can’t come to any other conclusion,” she said. But she thought it was a forgivable sin. Ultimately God’s business is forgiveness and in offering second chances. (5) Someone has said that the Christian army is the only army that shoots its wounded. Sometimes the critical, judgmental, unforgiving attitudes of fellow Christians hinder people in ...

4119. Thankful

Ephesians 5:20

Children's Sermon

Marti Kramer Suddarth

... of her messy sock drawer out onto the living room floor, sat down, and sorted her socks. Each time she found a pair, she pinned them together so that the matches wouldn’t separate and put the pinned-together socks in the basket. “My plan is brilliant,” she thought, “When I’m done sorting, I’ll never have to hunt for socks again. I’ll just reach into the basket and grab a clothespin!” But guess what? She didn’t get to finish the job that day, and do you know why? It was because she had ...

4120. You Can’t Judge A Filling By Its Chocolate

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Children's Sermon

Marti Kramer Suddarth

... it yet, but one of his eight sons was going to be chosen as the next king. So Samuel came to town, and Jesse called together his sons. First, Samuel met Eliab. The Bible doesn’t tell us what Eliab looked like, but Samuel was impressed. After seeing Eliab, Samuel thought that he must be the next king. But do you know what God said? In verse 7, God said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they ...

4121. Help Me, I'm Lost

Luke 15:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... the water. He swam back to Herman and wrapped his arm around him, holding his exhausted friend and the rope while the men on the boat pulled them both back to the safety of the raft. (1) All six of the men subsequently finished the journey unharmed. I thought of Heyerdahl’s friend thrashing helplessly in that mass of waves when I re-read this much loved passage in Luke’s Gospel about the lost sheep and the lost coin. It’s important to note who was present when Jesus told these parables. Luke tells us ...

4122. Swept Clean

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... wash. You think I'm kidding don't you? I remember piles of clothes in the laundry room almost as tall as I was. My oldest son, Paul, benefited from her aversion to laundry. He received hand-me-downs that had only been worn once or twice. And he thought that was cool because my sister had great taste and liked her kids to dress in the current fashions. So, she was always buying clothes. My nieces and nephews learned how to do the laundry out of self defense, so they could wear their favorite shirt or pair of ...

4123. Broken Lives and Broken Chains

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... we call the Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac. That's kind of a weird passage for Father's Day don't you think? I thought about pulling away from Lectionary and finding a passage more appropriate. But then I got to thinking about all the families in trouble. And ... I told him every time saw him. And I hugged him, too. One time on phone, told him, "Hey, Dad, I love you." He paused. I thought he was going to say it. What he said was, "Yeah." Then there was a long pause and he said it again, "Yeah." That was as ...

4124. LENT: The Passion of Christ: "Betrayed"

John 13:21-30; Matthew 26:14-16; 45-50

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... , he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. [27] After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "Do quickly what you are going to do." [28] Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. [29] Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the festival"; or, that he should give something to the poor. [30] So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. Matthew 26:14-16 (NRSV) [14 ...

4125. LENT: The Passion of Christ: "Tempted"

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... we've got it made, well watch this . . . Most of the time, we're just like that mouse. Every time we succumb to temptation we get squashed. Just when we think we've gotten away with it, boom, down comes the broom and all that trash we thought was safely swept under the carpet is suddenly exposed. Today is the Second Sunday in Lent. In the United Methodist Church, Lent is that time when we focus on The Passion of Christ. Lent is the 40 days before Easter (not counting Sundays because they are little Easters ...

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